The invention relates to cards and, more particularly, to cards that provide a viewing enhancement function.
Cards that people carry about in their wallets or purses issued by financial, retail and other consumer-orientated businesses for transmitting information relating to an individual carrying the card have become ubiquitous for enabling efficient transactions to occur in all sorts of daily applications. Credit cards are perhaps the most common type of such cards which allow purchases to be made without the need to pay cash for the items charged to the card. Similarly, debit cards and telephone cards allow consumers to use the cards in lieu of money to pay for items or calls, respectively, by drawing down the money deposited to a specified account tied to the card. In all of these cards, there is typically information encoded such as on a magnetic strip of the card relating to the identity of the card owner and/or which allows the status of the account associated with the card to be determined.
With telephone cards, public transportation or train cards, etc. the holder can add value to the card by feeding the card into a machine that accepts money and adds the indicated amount to the card. The holder of the card uses it by running the card through the card reader that detects the amount added to the card as encoded on the magnetic strip and deducts the amount needed to effect the transaction for which it is being used. One problem noted with these cards is that once the holder uses up the amount they have added to the card, typically rather than retaining the so called xe2x80x9cemptyxe2x80x9d card for future use by adding money thereto as described, they simply discard the empty card and obtain a new one when needed and add the money to the new card at the time it is obtained and thereafter as is convenient. Accordingly, this raises cost to the card issuer as they need to increase the number of cards they produce to satisfy this need created by those who do not retain their cards when the value added thereto has been exhausted.
With a great many of cards, there generally is paperwork that is generated by their use. For example, with use of credit cards, an invoice is created that has to be read and signed by the user. Where the credit card is used in a restaurant, the amount is of particular importance as that determines the tip for the service provider that has to be calculated. Another example is prescription cards that are provided to the pharmacist for example, before a prescription is filled. In this instance, the label on the bottle indicates the type of medicine contained therein, the dosage and frequency at which the medicine is to be used, and various warnings regarding its use. These labels are typically fairly small with associated small print thereon to fit on the small bottles. Because the patients obtaining prescriptions are often elderly people, the prescription labels are usually very difficult to read without use of reading glasses. Other examples of where cards are employed in a context where reading can become important is with telephone cards where the user may need to refer to a telephone book and a vehicle warranty card provided with a vehicle owners manual.
The typical pair of eyeglasses are usually provided with a soft or hard case so that they can be carried about when not in use. Where people need glasses for reading or do not like to wear their glasses all the time, the cases are an important accessory as they protect them from damage. One problem with these cases is in their size as they have to be large enough to accommodate the glasses with their temple arms folded against the lenses. Thus, the cases are slightly larger than the size of a standard folded-up pair of reading glasses. The size of the cases does not permit them to be readily fit into most pockets on clothing. Accordingly, absent some sort of carrying bag or pouch for holding the case, eyeglasses that are used only periodically such as for reading, are usually left at home and thus, not otherwise available for their owners. Thus, despite the need, many card holders do not have reading glasses with them when needed such as in conjunction with use of their cards, as described above.
A Fresnel lens has been provided in the shape of long bookmarks having a length of approximately seven and a half inches as well as in the shape of rectangular cards of the credit card type size. The Fresnel lenses in these relatively large forms are a flat, thin piece of plastic material in which a series of small concentric stepped grooves are formed to produce raised prism ridges in the plastic material. Fresnel lenses are not particularly well suited for viewing enhancement such as for reading print like the typical lens used with reading glasses. Instead, Fresnel lenses are typically used in applications where magnification is the most important consideration over all others. In this regard, Fresnel lenses as reading lenses are typically not used because of their poor optics in terms of resolution creating blurring or distorted vision in their use. In this regard, the diopter rating for Fresnel lenses is not very well defined and can vary somewhere in the range of four to six, which generally is several orders beyond that needed for reading lenses. Another drawback of the high-power magnification provided by Fresnel lenses is that the focal length and field of view of the lens is not as desirable as it is with a typical lens for reading. With high-powered Fresnel lenses not only is resolution poor, but the lens needs to be held further from the eyes for proper focus and the high magnification and diopter rating they provide decreases the field of view beyond that which is desired when reading. Also, Fresnel lenses usually are formed of a relatively soft, plastic material such as PVC that can readily be pressed for forming the requisite ridges of the Fresnel lens. The soft plastic material renders Fresnel lenses particularly deficient as reading lenses as from a practical standpoint, these types of lenses are handled frequently and when they are formed with a soft plastic material will tend to more easily be scratched or marred as a result thereof.
Accordingly, there is a need for a card that allows for the reading of materials generally associated therewith without the need for a separate pair of reading glasses to be available. More particularly, a card that allows the owner to use the card for reading much in the manner of a pair of reading glasses would be desired.
In accordance with the present invention, a reading card is provided that has a size akin to that of a credit card and can be fit in a sleeve or holder that is incorporated into a wallet. In this manner, a separate pair of reading glasses and case therefor are not needed to provide precision viewing enhancement for a user. Instead, the present reading card can be carried in a space savings manner in a cardholder""s wallet and when removed therefrom can be used for transactions, identification purposes and the like while also providing the holder with precision viewing enhancement. More particularly, the reading card has at least one reading lens which is smaller in size than the card member and is carried thereby and preferably has a configuration to provide it with a well-defined diopter rating so that the card can be adapted to a user""s specific reading needs based on their eyesight deficiency, unlike the poor optics provided by Fresnel lenses.
A low-profile or surface mount light or LED can also be incorporated in the reading card so that the viewing area can be illuminated for enhanced reading, particularly in dimly lit locations. Other features incorporated into the present reading card can include a low-profile voice recorder/playback device and calculator features including low-profile keys and a display. All of these added electronic features do not add significantly to the size, and in particular the thickness of the present card thus adding significant value to the card while also keeping its compact size for carrying purposes. Where the card is used by paying to add cash value to the card, the reading lens and above-described electronic features will increase the likelihood that the holder will not discard the card when empty thus reducing costs to card issuers. Magnets can be attached to the card to allow the card to be placed on a metallic support surface, e.g. refrigerator door, when not in use.